More Pics

September 27, 2010

Well, needless to say the Jasper branch is very... Interesting. On Sunday, they got to the sacrament portion of the meeting and realized that nobody brought the bread. So branch president tried taking up some time and called some people up to share their testimony while someone ran home to grab some.
Priesthood meeting was spent most of the time arguing about how to collect home teaching reports (Doesn't matter because nobody does it anyway). And that was about it. I am still thinking about what the branch really needs. It was a ward a few months ago but nobody comes anymore so it has been turned into a branch.
Today we went fishing. There is a less-active member who lives/works at a huge lake and so she let us come fish for free. Her husband is not a member and he wanted us to fish later tonight. We will have dinner with them and the branch president and his wife tonight. It should be fun.
Nothing else really to report. I hope everyone takes the opportunity to watch all of the sessions of general conference. Too many people take it for granted!

Love ya!

-Elder Oliekan

September 20, 2010

We had a GREAT weekend. We were trained by Elder Bednar and all I can say is that I don't think I have ever heard a better teacher in my life. He is a very funny, down to earth man. He stressed the idea of being agents to act, not objects to be acted upon. For that reason he would not call on someone to answer a question unless they were raising their hand wanting to answer because he did not want us to become objects being acted upon. He also talked about note taking and how too many members take notes at Conferences and miss possible revelatory experiences. He said to use notes as inspiration comes.

It was wonderful to be in the presense of an Apostle. It was intimidating at first to be in the same room as he was.

Jasper is a small town. I live with members again but at least we have a car full time. We live about 25 minutes from Jasper in a tiny town called Townley. It is in the middle of nowhere in a forest... There is virtually no work happening here either. I wish I could say I am surprised.

The Branch is... Interesting. Alot of older people. For some reason everyone here is obsessed with knowing my first name. We had Stake Conferene yesterday and they attempted to broadcast it via web cam to the ward and branch buldings. However, the feed from the Stak Center was bad so everyone in the Stake pretty much missed Conference.

Elder Tennant is from Mesa Arizona. He likes to draw.

My new address is

4566 Beech Grove Rd.

Townley, AL. 35587

Love you all.

-Elder Oliekan

Pictures from Travis

Sept 13, 2010

HELLO EVERYONE,
We had a good turnout at church yesterday. Brother Fraziers friend, Tommy came. He enjoyed it a lot and said after the meetings that for the first time he could go home from church and be happy for the rest of the day. He is coming along. Sister Teel also came up to us, very excited, and told us about a great missionary experience she had this past week. The Teels are one of the families we have given our standard lesson to and they are seeing the results from thw things that they have done with it. INterestingly enough, the families that have completed their standards are also the ones that are having missionary experiences.
I am getting transfered. I am going to Jasper, AL. It is another Branch. I am pretty sure this will be my last area. I am going to be serving with Elder Tennant. He is a weird kid. I have no idea what to expect.
I hope you enjoy the pictures. LOVE YA!

Sept 7, 2010

This came a day later than usual because of Labor Day and the libraries being closed.


We have continued our standard lesson with the members and have been able to begin following up with some of them. One family, the Woods, drew a flower and put it on their wall in a frame. Each petal represents a standard that they want to set. They are then going to make petals of the same color (All the petals are different colors) and put a different pedal in a different part of their house to remind them of the covenants that they have made with the Lord. It is great to see the different ideas that members are coming up with for their standards. The members are also starting to have missionary experiences. So far the response has been positive.

The Branch put on a softball team against the Anniston Ward yesterday for Labor day. It was also our P-Day so we were able to go to that. It was fun and we had a good time.

The weather is starting to cool down a bit. It is definitely getting colder at night. The days are starting to have cool breezes. It makes none car days a whole lot nicer.

Tomorrow we will be going to the temple. This is my fist time going to the temple on my mission. I am truly looking forward to it. I plan on making it a point to go often when I get home.

Transfers will be next week. I am not 100% sure what all is going to happen but I know a few things that will be happening. I will let you know what happens next week.

I love you all very much!

-Elder Oliekan